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Overcoming the Innovation Divide in Europe: perspectives and possibilities

18/05/2015

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On May 28th from 15:00 to 19:30 the Estonian Permanent representation will host in his premises the high-level seminar and panel discussion "Overcoming the Innovation Divide in Europe: perspectives and possibilities", organized with the Ministry of Education and Research in Estonia and the Estonia Research Council.

The seminar aims to address and raise new insights on the growing political concern over the increasing disparity in knowledge and innovation transfer capabilitiesbetween Europe’s regions and Member States.Accessing all of Europe’s markets, human resources and innovation potential remains crucial for its global competitiveness, with Horizon 2020 being a key opportunity to serve this goal and foster European R&D-collaboration in all of its regions. With the recent cuts of national R&D-budgets and the political pressure to increase the overall effectiveness and socio-economic returns of public R&D spending, European Commission and national governments are facing the double task of not only increasing domestic academia - industry cooperation, but fostering more international research cooperation and business opportunities through pan-European knowledge-intensive networks. The panel discussion aims to discuss policy recommendations on this issue, including the expected impact from Horizon 2020 Framework Programme implementation.

The agenda includes introductory remarks from Mr Jürgen Ligi, Minister for Education and Research of Estonia, followed by keynote speaker Professor Andrea Bonaccorsi, Board of the National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes in Italy. Best examples on successful knowledge transfer policies in Member States will be given by Dr Špela Stres, Head of Centre for Technology Transfer at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia, and Ms Evelyn Smith, Manager at the EU Research and Innovation Office of Enterprise Ireland.A panel including European Commission and European Parliament representatives, university and private sector stakeholders will discuss knowledge transfer and innovation policy issues in Europe, focusing mainly on two questions:

Which type of policy reforms and funding instruments should Member States implement to increase their innovative capacity and social returns from R&D investments?

Is Horizon 2020’s shift towards industry-led and challenge-based research funding helping to decrease the Innovation Divide in Europe?

Panel members:

Representative of European Commission (tba)Ms Marju Lauristin MEP, S&D, Social and Democratic Party, EstoniaDr Špela Stres, Head of the Institute's Centre for Technology Transfer, Jožef Stefan InstituteMr Chistian Ehler MEP, EPP, Christian Democrats, GermanyMr Linnar Viik, Member of Advisory Board, the Lisbon Council and Member of Estonian Research and Development Council

The panel will be moderated by Professor Toivo Maimets, Director of Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, and member of the RISE Advisory Group to the European Commission

If you are interested to join the debate on this important topic, you can contact to confirm your participation by May 20th in writing to brussels@etag.ee

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under agreement n°320209